My Modern Working Wardrobe: The Screenwriter

Benji Walters would like nothing better than to dress to the nines every day. As someone who schooled himself in his craft by pouring over the works of Evelyn Waugh and Paul Bowles, from the age of 16 he considered himself a dandy-in-training. A recent career change, however, has made that option a bit tricky. “Film and TV are very casual industries; a difficult thing for an inveterate over-dresser like me to accept!” he explains. Previously a writer and contributor to consummately stylish magazines like Man About Town and Wonderland, now he’s pivoted to the world of screenwriting, he’s had to hang up his suits – at least when he’s at his desk – in favour of something a little more casual.

It’s that reasoning that makes Paul Smith’s Modern Working Wardrobe a perfect fit for Benji. His own definition of the collection – “clothes that are by necessity comfortable, multi-purpose and presentable” – is about as apt as we could surmise. Take, for example, the seersucker jacket he wore when we visited him at his London home (and office). “It’s relaxed and comfortable, but the tailored cut of the jacket keeps things smart,” Benji says. “With the collar buttoned up the piece echoes vintage workwear; unbuttoned it has the face-framing shape of a lapel. I love that kind of elevated versatility.”

It was a “two-year cinematic bootcamp” with none other than director and auteur Luca Guadagnino (yes, that Luca Guadagnino, of Call Me By Your Name fame) that set Benji on his current path. “[He] generously brought me on, untested, to adapt a much-loved literary classic with him,” he explains. Even though, he concedes, that project won’t see the light of day, he still counts it as invaluable experience. “It’ll be a hard project to top anytime soon!”